Device for removing injurious insects.



E. ABRESCH.

DEVICE FOR REMOVLNG INJURIOUS (NSECTS.

APPLICATION FILED 05c. l. 1911.

Patented 00h 1, 19m.

EUGEN'ABRESGH, or nnnsran'r-on-rnin-mnnr, GERMANY.

DEVICE FOR REMOVING INJURIOUS INSECTS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented (let. 111., 191%.

Application filed December 1, 1911. Serial No. 663,356.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EUGEN Annnson, a subject of the German Emperor, and resident of Neustadt-on-the-Hardt, Germany, have invented new and useful Improvements in Devices for Removing Injurious Insects, of which the following is a specification.

It has'been found that the light emitted by mercury vapor lamps exerts a most extraordinary attraction for insects. If. for example there be suspended close to each other an ordinary arc lamp of about 3000 candle power and a mercury vapor lamp of about 1000 candle power it will be found that the insects fly without exce tion to the mercury vapor lamp in spite o the higher candle power of the arc lamp. It may be assumed that it is the rays at the violet end of the spectrum and the ultra-violet rays which exert this power of attraction for insects.

The present invention relates to an improvement in the method of destroying insects using a source of light for attracting them and thereupon sucking or forcing them to a collecting chamber by means of an artificial draft. which improvement consists in using a source of light which emits more particularly violet and ultra-violet rays, such as a mercury vapor lamp.

If such a lamp were suspended in a restaurant garden, dancing saloon or the like for the purpose of collecting the insects, it might happen that the rays emitted by the source of light would affect injuriously the eyes of persons coming near the lamp, or at all events might impart an unpleasant appearance to such persons. To overcome this trouble the downwardly directed rays may be obscured by providing the downwardly directed surface of the lamp itself with acoating which is opaque or partially opaque to light or is suitably colored or blackened. The lamp then radiates suiiicient light to attract the insects while there is insufficient light emitted downward to injure persons under the lamp or to give them an unpleasant appearance.

Instead of coating the lamp itself with an opaque or suitably colored covering, the lamp may be provided with an opaque or colored shade, or such shade may be suspended beneath the lamp.

The accompanying drawing illustrates diagrammatically a device according to the invention, in which a mercury lamp 1 is used. This is coated at its lower part with an opaque or colored layer 2, while above there is sufficient space for emission of light necessary for attracting the insects.

Now what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is the following:

1. An insect destroying apparatus comprising a source of light in which ultra-violet rays predominate, and means associated therewith to remove andeiitrap the insects attracted thereby.

2; An insect destroying apparatus comprising a mercury vapor lamp emitting light rays in w iich the violet and ultra-violet predominate to attract the insects, and means associated therewith toremove and entrap the insects.

3. An insect destroying apparatus comprising a mercury vapor lamp including means for screening a portion thereof for the purpose specified. in combination with means to remove and entrap the attracted insects.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention. I have signed my name in presence of two witnesses, this lit-h day of November, 1911.

EUGEN ABRESCH. 

